Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2017) 49 S5.1 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.49.S5.1

ECE2017 Symposia Turn your face to the sunshine (3 abstracts)

Effects of maternal thyroid function on infant neurodevelopment

Tim Korevaar


The Netherlands.


In this talk I aim to provide a helicopter view of clinical studies on maternal thyroid function and child neurodevelopment and use this to pinpoint out how different viewpoints on the results can help to interpret the clinical relevance of the currently available data and provide handles to make personal but informed clinical decisions. It is well-established that thyroid hormone plays an important role during early stages of fetal brain development. Thyroid hormone-dependent stages of brain development occur from the 5th week of pregnancy onwards while the fetal thyroid is not functionally matured until week 18–20. This implicates that adequate maternal thyroid hormone concentrations are important for achieving optimal early fetal brain development. After the initial link between iodine deficiency and cretinism was first identified, a wide range of experimental studies further established underlying (patho)physiological mechanisms. Subsequently, clinical studies were set-up to translate these findings and quantify the extent of effects in humans. During this presentation I aim take the audience through a brief timeline of clinical studies published since the late 1990s until this year. The interpretation of clinical outcomes used to study the hypothesis that maternal thyroid hormones are important for fetal brain development, such as child IQ, will be discussed. The timeline of clinical studies together with the interpretation of the results of recent studies, including clinical trials, could help to weigh the potential clinical benefits and harms, and make for a better informed decision making.

Volume 49

19th European Congress of Endocrinology

Lisbon, Portugal
20 May 2017 - 23 May 2017

European Society of Endocrinology 

Browse other volumes

Article tools

My recent searches

No recent searches.

My recently viewed abstracts